“Upon further review . . .”
Back in the days when the NFL used instant replay, game officials used those words after they checked the TV replay.
Maybe the same idea could be applied to earlier opinions about which Big Ten teams will benefit most from the selection and seeding for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, which begins Friday.
Upon further review, No. 6-seeded Wisconsin won the selection process, not No. 3 seed Illinois, nor No. 4 seeds Iowa or Purdue, nor, of course, No. 10 seed Michigan.
Now, that doesn’t seem to make sense. As a No. 3 seed, the Illini (18-9) get to host Saturday’s first-round game against Wisconsin-Green Bay in 16,000-seat Assembly Hall in Champaign. And, as No. 4 seeds, the Hawkeyes and the Boilermakers, host first round games on Friday.
Also, if any of those teams wins its opener, it will also play its second-round game at home.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin at 21-9, had more victories that any team in the Big Ten, but its sixth-place finish in the league and its early exit in the conference tournament produced a No. 6 seed and an entire NCAA tourney schedule on the road.
Ah, but look where these teams open the NCAA meet.
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The Illini, Hawkeyes and Boilermakers will play amid the snowdrifts and freezing cold of Champaign, Iowa City and West Lafayette, respectively.
While the Badgers go to Gainesville, Fla., for a first-round game Saturday against Virginia Tech (21-9). If Wisconsin wins its opener, it faces the Montana-Florida winner Monday, also in Gainesville.
Think the Badger women were disappointed having to leave the snowdrifts of Madison, Wis.?
“When I was in grade school, I took a family vacation to Florida,” recalls 6-foot-2-inch Badger star Ann Klapperich, a Fond du Lac resident. “I’m looking forward to going down there again, getting a little sun. It should be a good time.”
The Badgers apparently have heeded coach Jane Albright-Dieterle’s reminder that this is a business trip, or, at least, a business/pleasure trip.
“Jane is telling us we got a really good seed,” Klapperich said. “So, we’re looking forward to taking care of business and having a little fun. What the heck, it’s the NCAAs and my last shot at it. So why not go have some fun.”
Albright-Dieterle says she respects the ability of Virginia Tech and Florida. Still, she likes the draw because it hasn’t placed the Badgers amid the huge partisan crowds they faced when they were bumped from the NCAA tournaments in 1995 at Texas Tech and in 1996 at Vanderbilt.
“The crowd rattled us in our last two trips to the NCAA,” Albright-Dieterle said. “Florida will be much more of a true neutral court. We’re not going to have to face the sixth player of 10,000 people in the stands.”
Had the Badgers been awarded a seed as high as Illinois, Iowa or Purdue, they would have played before 16,000 fans in their new Kohl Center. Still, like her players, the Badgers coach sees benefit in this trip.
“If there is one thing that lifted our spirits it’s that even though we’re not hosting, we get to go to Florida and leave the blizzard,” Albright-Dieterle said.
The lineup: Illinois coach Theresa Grentz said Tuesday her starting lineup against Green Bay is likely to be Tauja Catchings, Melissa Parker, Ashley Berggren, Nicole Vasey and Alicia Sheeler.
The Illini closed their season with three straight losses–at Wisconsin and at Purdue in the regular season and against Penn State in the Big Ten tournament.
“There was not enough time to filter out the disappointment of Wisconsin and Purdue before the Big Ten tournament,” Grentz said. “We’re much, much better now.”
How has Grentz filtered out the disappointment of three straight losses going into the tournament?
“I gave them a couple of days off,” Grentz said. “Then, in practice, they handled the ball like a live hand grenade. So, I ordered the balls back in the rack . . . and ran the self-pity out of them.”